Not long ago I mentioned that I’ve been more effective at the things I’m working on, I’m starting things, and finishing them, and generally feeling good about my ability to show up.
I even wrote about it in my personal newsletter, The Mental Load Diet.
The secret sauce has been me installing a faucet that allows me to dial in more, less, trickle or off… at least when it comes to thoughts.
Thinking Makes It So
Most of us will have times when we are locked in analysis paralysis, or procrastinating because we don’t know where to begin. So much of the struggle with an ADHD brain is about how we’re accessing information, how we’re prioritizing it, and learning to manage our relationship.
"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so" - Hamlet
The paradox of a neurodivergent, interest based, information seeking brain is that we might experience “information overload,” in multiple ways, such as:
Needing to understand something 100% before we start
Feeling like we can't start because there is too much information, and we can't figure out where to start
Our tangential deep dives into things that aren't necessarily relevant to the project at hand
Our "um, actually" moments where we need to step up and correct someone who doesn't actually know what they're talking about
We learn to seek more information because we want to understand before we start, which is a procrastination choke-point. What this looks like is our tendency to be commitment phobic.
We often don’t want to make a decision because we want more information, and rather than decide and deal with the outcome, we delay.
On the flip side, we often get to the point of too much information, then don’t know where to start because there are multiple valid things to pursue, or maybe there’s one thing that’s important but multiple ways to start it.
The neurodivergent brain has a special relationship with information, so learning to spot our weak spots and our strengths becomes the skill that stands between us and “success.”
As I said, there is a lot to unpack in here… probably more than we could cover in a 90-minute chat, but its worth starting the conversation.
This Week at the Co-op
I’ve mentioned repeatedly that the Monday Momentum meeting can be hit or miss with attendance. While it’s not clear if that was a summer slump, and if we’re about to rebound, it is clear that it’s too easily just a “Let’s Chat on Monday” meeting… for better or worse.
My commitment is to have this last Monday Momentum meeting today (September 15th) but change things around in October. (I’m traveling this next week, so won’t be around to run it on the 22nd.)
So, this week’s events are:
Monday Momentum - September 15th, 11:30 AM Mountain
It’ll be a one-hour meeting, I’ve got another at 1 PM so need to drop to prep for that.
I’m happy to plot out the week with folks, or talk about my Kanbanization of Google Calendar technique if someone is looking for an ADHD friendly way to move through their week. (Don’t worry, I’ll be writing about it soon enough anyway.)
Starting at some point in October I’ll be creating a “Daily Stand-Up” style check-in program that allows us to sync with one person, share our daily to-do with a human, hear theirs, and then get to work. We can talk about that as well.
Weekly Spark - September 18th, 11:30 AM Mountain (Google Calendar Link)
The 90-minute conversation will be about information in all its forms, how we manage it, what we love or hate, or wherever the conversation takes us. I may refine even deeper when we get there so we can focus a bit, and have later conversations on other specifics.
New Meeting Concept Incoming
If you’ve been to a Weekly Spark, you know that sometimes we just get so excited about something that we veer off course. I love those conversations, but want to keep some rails on the Thursday.
Last spring, I tried running a “Deep Dive” session which let Jeff share his Notion based SuperBrainOS with the community., which got a decent turnout, but I didn’t execute on it the way I’d hoped. I was already running 2 meetings each week, and struggled to get going.
More recently, I’ve talked with Claire about having a space where she can walk community members through HER ideas, for feedback and exploring ideas as well.
It’s always been on my mind that we really get some great “output” when we come together in pursuit of a special interest, so we’ll be leaning into that as the second format of a weekly conversation.
It’s still loosely defined, but we’ll get it ironed out in October as well.
The format will be: Community Run 60-90 minute sessions where you can:
Bring up a topic that excites you, and we talk about it.
Bring a course/workshop and members can participate.
Create a hot seat where we deep dive, maybe it’s a project, maybe it’s a need for feedback.
If you’ve got thoughts, leave them here, or in the community, I’ll start a thread and add it to this thread later.
Call to Action
The cooperative is about helping each other build something awesome, either in building up each other’s projects, or working together to make the cooperative even more helpful.
This week’s call to action?
Find a friend or someone who would benefit by joining the community in one of three ways.